(19)
(11) EP 2 096 860 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
02.12.2009 Bulletin 2009/49

(43) Date of publication A2:
02.09.2009 Bulletin 2009/36

(21) Application number: 09250415.8

(22) Date of filing: 18.02.2009
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC): 
H04N 1/60(2006.01)
 H04N 1/387(2006.01)
(84) Designated Contracting States:
AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HR HU IE IS IT LI LT LU LV MC MK MT NL NO PL PT RO SE SI SK TR
Designated Extension States:
AL BA RS

(30) Priority: 26.02.2008 JP 2008044542

(71) Applicant: Ricoh Company, Limited
Ohta-ku Tokyo 143-8555 (JP)

(72) Inventor:
  • Togami, Atsushi
    Tokyo 143-8555 (JP)

(74) Representative: Leeming, John Gerard 
J.A. Kemp & Co. 14 South Square Gray's Inn
London WC1R 5JJ
London WC1R 5JJ (GB)

   


(54) Image processing apparatus, image processing method, and computer program product


(57) An image processing apparatus has a plurality of image processing modes and outputs images of a plurality of pages on a single page in a combined manner. An image determining unit (21) determines whether each of the images is a color image or a monochrome image. A character identifying unit (22) identifies a black character area in each of the images. A color-conversion processing unit (25, 32) performs either one of a color conversion and a monochrome conversion on each of the images and a monochrome conversion on the black character area. A mode identifying unit identifies a current image processing mode. When the image determining unit (21) determines that the images include a color image, a control unit (7) controls the color-conversion processing unit (25, 32) to perform the color conversion on the images based on a result of determination by the image determining unit (21) and the current image processing mode. An image output unit combines the images on which the color conversion is performed by the color-conversion processing unit (25, 32) on a single page and outputs combined images.







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